It came evident when the basic mom wanted a rocket scientist or Doctor / Lawyer as a son/daughter.
The schools were being and are still being hammered on numbers - those that
go to college are value, those that get trade jobs are nothing - just like dropouts.
So money and care to trade classes went to lit and social classes - every one needed to read....
Power base shift from life to socialism. As some of these children
moved into higher education and into jobs - they found being able to think, sit, walk, work,
learn-on-the-fly and under pressure - was getting harder - it was done for themselves.

Those with skills continued to thrive as they fed both business and now a larger base of need.

My wife has a tool box. I keep it stocked the tools and such that we need for the house - and
bought her a nice Dewalt screwdriver - that she drills and screws into the house at will. I introduced
the 60 and 100# wallboard hanger - so now she is doing her thing and using me as needed.
Now I have a willing and trained - yes I helped her do it at first - when I need help.

My object in this was simple. A friend of mine lost his dad. The mother didn't know how to
pay bills, ........fix anything... and lost most of here money in a money shuffle stock manager...

I decided to get my wife geared in such a way she could run the house and her life as needed.
I was flying all over the world and working 10 miles from a 'firing range' or cease fire line
as it is really called. Flying into 5 countries in two days and driving in foreign countries
trying to save some company or someones job. I almost didn't come back on one trip and another
it was an emergency recall from France to Switzerland to L.A. (non-stop) to San Jose - with 2 hours
between planes in Switzerland. Swiss Air did a wonderful thing by routing me on a special plane
they had going.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH & Endowment Member
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member
http://lufkinced.com/


Too_Many_Tools wrote:
I think you have a good point Robert.

In my opinion the more technologically advanced a society is, the more
"fragile" it becomes.

TMT

Robert Sturgeon wrote:

On 5 Aug 2006 07:27:58 -0700, "Too_Many_Tools"
wrote:


It has always concerned me when the young amoung us are not taugh basic
skills such as how to change a tire, how to use a saw, how to...well
you get the idea...there are basic skills that one needs to deal with
the world we live in. Well this article shows what that lack of
training, due to whatever reason, means as they get older.

When I drive through a neighborhood, it is a rare garage that has
anything like a workshop within it anymore....a reflection of the lack
of interest or knowledge of the homeowner to work with their hands?

Do your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, the generation who
is succeeding us, have the basic skills that are needed in the world
today?

By and large, no. The post-modern economy is primarily
concerned with symbol manipulation -- not the creation of
real goods. There is very little call for the ability to do
icky stuff like using tools. What is needed in today's
world is the ability to manipulate symbols (known also as
the Symbolic Economy -- spreadsheets, databases, web pages,
data entry, reading and writing reports, politicking,
entertainment, lawyering, etc.).

A serious question, but one most of us don't like to think
about, is -- what skills might be needed in a
post-post-modern (a.k.a. post-SHTF) economy? And could we
meet such needs, if necessary? Probably not, which leads us
to the possibility of Tim May's "massive die-off," which
people like Jared Diamond assure us is possible when any
society/economy collapses. It is probably true that the
more symbolic, abstract, and detached from the production of
real goods a society/economy becomes, the more likely it is
to suffer a catastrophic collapse.

Fun, huh???

--
Robert Sturgeon
Summum ius summa inuria.
http://www.vistech.net/users/rsturge/



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